Burke Museum Holds Tse-whit-zen Collection in Trust

Seattle Signing a five-year agreement with
the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), the Burke Museum
will hold in trust the Tse-whit-zen archaeological collection uncovered by archaeologists
in Port Angeles.
The collection, which totals approximately 900 cubic feet of material, is the
largest archaeology collection currently at the Burke. WSDOT will ultimately
transfer the collection to a museum and curatorial facility being developed by
the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe (LEKT).

The Burke
Museum was selected by
the WSDOT to care for the collection because of its staff expertise in
archaeology, its vast experience curating archaeological collections, and its
excellent record of working with area tribes. Burke Held-in-Trust Program
Manager Steve Denton comments that, Area tribes and the archaeology community
are pleased that the collection is being
held in trust by the Burke Museum because of our reputation for providing
respectful care for Native collections. According to Burke Curator of
Archaeology, Peter Lape, the
Tse-whit-zen collection is one of many such archaeological collections held in
trust by the Burke
Museum for Federal,
State, County, City, and Tribal governmental bodies, and made available for
research.

Museum staff recently completed inventorying the collection,
a process that took five months to account for the 86,000 catalogue entries.
According to Denton,This is the biggest excavation of a precontact Native American settlement in
recent memory and will greatly increase our understanding of the regions
history when it is analyzed. Access to the collection for research purposes is
managed by WSDOT and will be made available to tribal members and qualified
researchers.

The Tse-whit-zen village was uncovered while constructing a
dry dock in Port Angeles
from August 2003 to December 2004. WSDOT worked closely with the Washington
State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the Federal Highways
Administration and the LEKT during excavation of the site to ensure that all human
remains were immediately transferred to the tribe. The collection at the Burke Museum
spans the period of site occupation from approximately 2500 years before
present to 1900 A.D. The artifacts from the site include spindle whorls, stone
bowls, combs, needles, harpoons, and other typical objects of daily life found in
Native villages along the Puget Sound
coastline.